The Black Lips Pelted With Bottles at India Gig

Fearless explorers they are, Atlanta's Black Lips are currently prepping for their new album, 200 Million Thousand , with a tour across India . Is India ready for the Lips? Are the Lips ready for India? Arjun S Ravi-- editor of Indian independent music website Indiecision -- went to the first couple gigs of the tour and returned with photos and this report:

The Black Lips' first tour of India got off to a shaky start in Pune January 17. Backstage, the band were pretty nervous; in interviews prior to the gig they mentioned how they would tone down their zany live act to "respect the people and places that provide these shows for us." In Pune, they were headlining a Campus Rock Idols event and playing to a crowd of nearly 1,500 kids who were largely unfamiliar with the group save for the introduction provided by an obnoxious MC: "Sixties hippie hard rock-- like Jim Morrison!"

The battle of the bands competition featured predominantly metal and hard rock college acts and started around noon. The Lips didn't take the stage until 9 p.m. When the band hit the stage, thePune audience was taken aback. They had just been treated to eight straight hours of mediocre college metal, after all. The idea of four white guys from the U.S. playing punk rock was startling. At first there was a little nervous cheering. Then came the shower of plastic bottles. The lack of boos and negative sentiment seemed to suggest that the audience were simply channeling their energy into propelling these plastic missiles.

Drummer Joe Bradley was the only band member to avoid getting hit by a bottle. Still, he had problems of his own: his drum stool was shaky, his floor tom tumbled from its perch. To add to the confusion, an announcer got on the PA in the middle of the set and treated the headliners like just another competition band, saying "You have seven minutes remaining." Finally, the band completed their 25 minute set. True to their word, they displayed no on-stage antics. None. They left the stage visibly shaken.

They headed to India's commercial capital, Mumbai, on January 20 to play a date on the environmentally conscious Climate Solutions Road Tour. The band was scheduled to play with five other bands-- including folk-fusionists Swarathma-- at the Bandra Amphitheatre, a large venue in a posh Mumbai suburb that can fit 500-800 people. The setup of the concert was vastly different to the Pune gig. There were no metal acts. Also, instead of the top-down profile of the stage in Pune, this was a bottom-up venue with the audience looking down at the band.

When the band took the stage at 8:45 p.m., the sound set up was pretty terrible with the vocals barely audible and the guitars too loud. Still, the band seemed relaxed. There were only about 200 people in the audience-- none of them with plastic bottles. A few people in the crowd even seemed to know who they were. They kicked off the gig with "Bad Kids" and slowly built up momentum through the set. Though the antics were measured (just a little dancing around on stage), the result was a far more confident show. They played for about 45 minutes. The crowd didn't get into it much, but they were appreciative. Two dudes at the front of the stage even shouted for an encore.

The rest of their tour has the band playing predominantly at club venues. Hopefully, they've built up enough confidence to throw some famed Black Lips shit down there. The Lips Jared Swilley and Ian Saint PĂŠ award a bunch of metal-loving Campus Rock Idols participants.

One of the few Lips fans in attendance explains a song to curious audience members.